Last Easter we tried shaving cream painting for the first time. We made Shaving Cream Painted Easter Eggs and used them to create Easter Egg cards and an Easter Egg Banner. It was one of the most fun art techniques we’d ever tried and the whole process from start to finish was absolutely beautiful. My little girl didn’t get in on the action last year, so we did a new version of the Easter eggs craft this year…a smarter version! Because this activity is a messy one, we capitalized on that fact by doing the activity in an area where it was okay for the kids to get as messy as they wanted, and an area where the mess was contained and easily cleaned up! Win-win! And we had even MORE fun than last year!

You don’t want to over-mix or it’ll end up one yucky color instead of swirls of beautiful colors.

Lilah twirled her fork around in the shaving cream and paint, and offered me some “spaghetti.” Yum! 🙂

Last year we used paper for our shaving cream painting, but this year we used craft foam!! I cut free-form egg shapes from several sheets of craft foam in various colors. The kids took the foam eggs and pressed them into the shaving cream paint swirls.

After making sure they were well-pressed and after letting them sit there for a minute or so, they’d carefully peel them up…

…and lay them on the side of the tub.

We repeated the process for all the foam eggs.

When the Easter egg decorating was done…

…the kids enjoyed some messy play time.

I was especially surprised my little boy enjoyed it as much as he did as he is usually Mr. Clean Hands…

…but he got almost as into it as my sensory loving little girl!

After the shaving cream and paint mixture had been thoroughly enjoyed and was now a dull pink color overall…

…we washed it down the drain and let the kids clean themselves up a bit. We used just enough water to clean up, and then used a towel to dry the bottom of the tub again.

Then the kids retrieved their foam Easter eggs from the edge of the tub one at a time and used a squeegee to scrape off the excess shaving cream and paint.

Underneath, the foam had been “stained” by the paint in pretty swirly patterns, thus giving our Easter eggs a marbled design.

Between scrapes, I washed off the squeegee in the sink and dried it on a towel.

After all the eggs had been scraped, we washed the excess paint and shaving cream down the drain once more and the kids enjoyed a warm bath. Meanwhile, I used a terry cloth rag to gently blot off any remaining shaving cream from the Easter eggs and laid them out to dry. (They are pretty much dry right after being blotted off.) You should avoid getting the foam Easter eggs wet as the paint will likely wash off, smear, or at the very least, fade since the paint used is washable.

Now we have bunches of cute foam Easter eggs! These can be used for projects like we did last year — Easter egg cards or Easter egg banners — but this year, we used them for window decorations.

You could tape the foam eggs onto your windows, but since foam sticks like a sticker when wet, we lightly misted the backs of our eggs with a spray bottle and stuck them on our windows. The foam will stick for a day or so with just water, and I figure the kids will enjoy getting to spray and restick them where they want anyway!

Have you made any Easter eggs crafts this year? Tried shaving cream painting?

For more Easter fun, you can see all our Easter holiday posts and visit our Easter Pinterest board. Also be sure to check out all the Easter baths from Growing a Jeweled Rose and In Lieu of Preschool!

Genny Upton

A former teacher turned stay at home mom to two preschool aged children. Creator (and writer) at In Lieu of Preschool and Parent Teach Play. Currently publishing my first children's picture book! http://www.inlieuofpreschool.com/ http://www.parentteachplay.com/

I have a feeling my daughter would love to do the whole thing in the bathtub. When we used this technique for Valentine’s Day, I ended up putting her and all our supplies into the bathtub to clean up in the end, as she had so much fun with the shaving cream and spread it all over herself and the table 😉

[…] up, and even little kids can create this really stunning art. If you choose, your kids can even use the leftover shaving cream paint for messy play that is actually really easy to clean-up! Art, science, and play all in one […]

[…] This craft, found here, is great for the young ones. WARNING: this is messssssy! The pictures even show the kids doing this in the tub wearing their bathing suits. But messy always means tons of fun and the kids will LOVE it, right? All you need is washable paint, a bunch of shaving cream, a mixing utensil, and craft foam cut into egg shapes of any size. This is a super fun activity that focuses on the process, rather than the final product (although you do get a pretty cool tye-dye looking egg afterwards). Check out the how-to here. […]